Day 3

The down-side to blogging so early is that I know I will have something to blog about later. And for an early blog post, it's a long one.

Last night, as we were going to bed, I say as I do almost every night, "Kerry, I didn't get my good night kiss." I have a bad memory and seriously can't always remember if I got one.
He says "Yes, you did. And as I've said before it hurts my feelings that you don't remember." Then he kissed me and I'm pretty sure I didn't get one before that because the creep licked me first before I screamed that he hadn't shaved and that I would have remembered the whisker burn.
He says that after more than 13 years he should know better and he should announce "I'm giving you your good night kiss now so remember it."
To which I replied something witty, but because of my bad memory I can't remember what I said, but trust me it was good.


Shaun brought home 240 or so frozen tart shells from Tim Horton's, not very long after I had made Emily's new favourtie tart, really, it's the only one she eats. I had made some cherry cheese tarts, pulled the recipe from the deep dark recesses of my brain that hold wonderful, award winning recipes.* (If you count having your family cry tears of joy because you baked as awards.)
Anyway, this morning, bright and early, I baked up a bunch of shells and made just cheese tarts, mostly for Emily, but I'm sure she'll share. They are really easy...2 packages of cream cheese, some almond extract, some icing sugar, mixed together till creamy and maybe fluffy, plop a spoonful in each tart. Refrigerate. If you like fruit, put some cherry pie filling on them. I think they are pretty close to being cream cheese icing tarts, but I stop adding icing sugar just before they get to that point.
I have a kid that could be my sous chef but instead I get my dog, my pooh chef. He likes the soound of small kitchen appliances, thinks food comes out of all of them like the hot air popper.
Does he look contrite? Sheepish? The least bit sorry?
No. I don't think so either.
This 'little' jerk planned his great escape yesterday. After Kerry removed the clematis that grows along the fence, and I cleaned up the debris of last years bumper crop of weeds we exposed a nice length of chain link fencing. But to Linus, it was an escape route. He's big, he's kind of chunky, he's clumsy. As I was eating my Holy Cow bar and standing about 3 feet from him, while asking him what he was doing (I thought he was getting in possition to dig) he got super flat and slid under the chain link fence. Just like that he was gone. I stood there for a few seconds thinking how the heck did he just do that and if I was more athletic I would jump this 2 1/2 foot fence but I'm not so I won't.
I had to run around to the neighbours yard and hope that he hadn't figured out how to run around their house to the road. He didn't. He was looking for a way to get behind their house to the other dog. When he heard me yelling, happy yells, not angry ones, boy, that was hard, he came running back to the fence, not to me, I think he figured I was too dumb to get around the fence. Then I had to shake my granola bar so that he thought it was a treat for him. I snagged him by his collar and dragged him home. I never once yelled at him or called him bad dog then. I only called him a bad dog when I pushed him in the house. And then he did the flat dog thing again and laid on the floor like he had been steam rolled.
So he makes our life interesting, that dog does. Things Sally never dreamed of doing, he does and then some. He can't go outside unattended. We have fancy fence board along the bottom of our chain link now, so Rutland-like.
Go figure that now a Golden Retriever can't fit under the fence but for the first time ever I have quails in my yard. I have had them in my garden, but it's fenced off from the yard and the dogs scare every thing away. Once upon a time, we were weeding our 2 acre garden, okay, it only feels that big when you have to weed it, it's really about .08 of an acre. I had this huge herb garden, okay, it was a huge sage plant and a huge thyme plant in the middle of my huge weed patch. It was huge. Kerry was weeding around it, the same Kerry that 'weeds' my pepper plants, he pulls out everything, EVERYTHING. I have to pretty much watch him. Anyway, this is a long one...he's weeding and I'm weeding and then I hear "OH, NO, What have I done?" When we started weeding a quail flew out of the weeds, we didn't think twice about it until now. Poor Kerry had weeded all the protection from around mama quails nest of eggs. He tried to replant the weeds but it was too late. She never came back. It was very sad. Everyone said it was for the best, that we didn't want quail in our garden, but I didn't mind. It would be nice if someone got to eat something out of that weed patch. I did find it ironic that the bird would pick to put her nest in the middle of poultry seasoning.


* I am the master of making late night treats with little or no supplies. This week alone we have had the following, made from findings in the pantry and freezer...

Sweet and Salty Pecans. Spread pecans on foil lined cookie sheet, push them close together, sprinkle with Scor bits, large, chunky sea salt(not lots) and choc. chips. Bake at 350-400 for 10 min. checking to make sure you don't burn your nuts. Cool. Eat. !00 pts. per cup.

Not-really-triffle. White cake, cut in half and iced lightly with vanilla icing(left over from most beautiful cupcakes). Vanilla pudding, canned mandarin oranges, baker's choc. shredded on top.

And some other stuff, but again, my memory is getting the best of me.